It’s unusual to see an update of this size coming to iOS at this time of the year, but it’s a welcome one. There’s been a lot of talk about Apple moving towards a different release schedule once iOS 10 gets shipped so it’s realistic that we’ll be seeing more of this kind of thing in the future.

The highlights of 9.3:

Night Shift

This is Apple’s attempt at creating (or copying) a screen brightness ..adjuster. Night Shift automatically changes the shade of your screen late in the evening to a warmer shade which is easier on the eyes and apparently improves sleep. The interesting thing is Apple wouldn’t allow Flux onto the App Store back late last year. Flux has been around for a long time and offers pretty much the exact same service that Night Shift does. This could be coincidental, or Apple could have had a panic moment and decided to implement their own version. My guess is that it was long in the pipeline. Either way it’s a welcome addition.

Notes

Notes has got a nice little update. You can now lock specific notes with a passcode or with Touch ID. I can think of a few scenarios where I would like to use this. I would like to see more of this though. Maybe the ability to lock message conversations or photo albums?

All The Rest

• News got an update, but we still don’t have it in Ireland.
• The Heath dashboard got an update. Looks nice, but I still haven’t found much use for the app itself.
• Maps in CarPlay got a nice update.
• Some education features were added.